Five Guys®  Burger and Fries has five big draws for Amelia.  1.  Self-serve peanuts.  She loves them. She loves getting them herself, and she loves peeling them open.  2.  Self-serve drink machine.  I used to share a drink with her, but the drink concoctions she creates became so “interesting,” I had to bow out.  But, she drinks every last drop, telling me that it’s the most delicious thing that has ever quenched her thirst! 3.  The burgers.  She loves them.  She will eat an entire burger here, leaving her dad missing the usual scraps.  4.  The fries.  The fries drenched in vinegar.  If you’ve eaten at Five Guys, no more needs to be said here.  5.  The extra fries.  Not only do you get a big serving of fries, but after they put your cup of fries in the bag, they put an extra scoop on top, just for good measure.  No complaints here!

Amelia loves Panera Bread.  As would be reasonable, we started out getting her a children’s meal with macaroni and cheese and organic yogurt.  She fell in love with the chicken noodle soup, so she would still get a children’s meal, but then she would also steal most of our soup.  Parents can surely relate when I tell you that there are days when she won’t eat more than 27 servings of yogurt and perhaps some fishy crackers.  So, when she requested both macaroni and cheese and chicken noodle soup of her very own, what else were we to do?  Now that one of the side options is a dinner roll, she scoops out the center of the roll and pours the soup in, creating her very own bread bowl.  We imagine it’s just a matter of time before she is ordering her very own grown-up sized bread bowls.